


Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature

by feminabeata



Category: Golden Child (Korea Band), INFINITE (Band)
Genre: Florists, M/M, Tattoos, encounter with the supernatural, eventual xmas fluff at the end, my xmas fic for the year
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21793711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feminabeata/pseuds/feminabeata
Summary: Gerard De Nerval once wrote, "Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature." Nam Woohyun never truly understood what that quote meant until he met Sunggyu.
Relationships: Kim Sunggyu/Nam Woohyun
Comments: 3
Kudos: 27
Collections: Infinite Prompt Challenge - Florist + Tattoo Shop





	1. Rapeseed Flowers

They met for the first time when the camellias began to bloom, late in the fall, although you probably could not tell what season it was going by Woohyun’s outfit alone. His flimsy blue silk shirt flapped in the chilling breeze, exposing the tattoo near his clavicle of the musical notes to a song he wrote years prior. His tight, black pants were ripped at the knees, letting the night air pierce through his skin. But his outfit was a part of his performance, as was his black-lined eyed and the messily styled hair. It drew the attention of the passersby, who might’ve been more interested in the night-life of the city than in a man busking on the streets. The image of a moody, tortured artist brought their feet towards him, and his emotional voice kept them there.

Woohyun had quite the crowd that night, as he did most nights when he busked. But even amongst the crowd, that man stood out. That man, who was nodding along to the song and mouthing the lyrics, whose sleeves were pushed up his arms just enough to reveal a hint of his own tattoos, what brought him there that night? He wasn’t even looking at Woohyun now, so it probably wasn’t Woohyun’s appearance. Then was it Woohyun’s voice? The song?

It was the song. As soon as it ended, the man walked away clapping and went on with his night. But it didn’t dampen Woohyun’s spirits at all. In fact, he had a broad grin across his face because, for as many nights as he busked out on this street, Woohyun never met someone who purely enjoyed the music so much. And that was worth more to him than all of the money that the other spectators dropped into his open guitar case.

Woohyun thought music would bring them together again. But for the rest of the year and into the next, the man never came back down that street.

However, they did meet again. It wasn’t music that made their paths cross once more but flowers, rapeseed flowers, which heralded in the spring and their newly budding relationship.

* * *

But an entire winter still had to pass until, and there was much for Woohyun to do.

He walked into the tattoo parlor with a spring in his step. Everyone inside greeted him. And he made a bee-line for his usual station, where he sat down and waited.

“What did you want to get done today again?” a voice came from across the room. It was Sungyeol, the tattoo artist, Woohyun’s favorite tattoo artist. There was something coolly refreshing about his touch which made the whole process relatively painless, and he wasn’t horrible to look at, not at all, even though his hair was styled like a sageuk actor. But that somehow suited him. His features were delicate enough, as were the tattoos of water streaming along the curves of his muscles. The blue falls of color used to mesmerize Woohyun when he first came to the shop, as did Sungyeol’s unique style, but he was used to it now. And Sungyeol’s blunt and chaotic personality undercut anything delicate about his appearance.

“Here,” Woohyun said as he handed him the sketch of the tattoo that they’d drawn up together the day before. But that was a long enough time for the idea to drip out of Sungyeol’s head. “Write dot dot, on the index finger. Remember! It’s two dots and not three!”

“Ah that’s right,” Sungyeol muttered as he prepared to sketch the outline of the new tattoo along the inside of Woohyun’s finger. “I think you’re running out of ideas for meaningful tattoos,” he grumbled and sketched. Woohyun rolled his eyes. It was meaningful enough to him. More than meaningful, it was a promise to always keep writing music. Writing music, for him, was a process that would never be finished.

“Two dots. See.” Sungyeol announced with very little enthusiasm as he prepared the needle.

“Looks good,” Woohyun replied after counting the dots. He then put his hand into the other’s cool touch so that he could get to work. “So when are you ever going to get more help at this place? It’s getting hard to book an appointment here,” Woohyun tried to make casual conversation. And depending on Sungyeol’s temperamental mood, it worked some times better than others.

Today, Sungyeol was in a sharing mood: “I’m getting an apprentice soon. Part-time, but it’s better than nothing.”

“How can you have a part-time apprentice?” Woohyun picked out, but then he answered his own question. “Ah, he’s a student!”

“Sure,” Sungyeol brushed off the conversation. But that was how it was with him. His mood changed more than the tides, coming in either gentle or crushing waves. It didn’t matter to Woohyun though. He was still hell of a tattoo artist and a good friend. So he’d come again this season for yet another tattoo, and he’d return in the next season as well.

With each season another tattoo bloomed onto his skin.

Originally what Woohyun liked about tattoos wasn’t the artistry of them or that they permanent reminder of things that he liked, he liked how the covered, how they distracted from parts of him that weren’t so pretty, mainly his hands. His hands, with their knobby joints and unevenness, had always made him self-conscious. They were also paler than the rest of his body, even though they were exposed to the elements the most. They were strange, and perhaps they were even stranger now, coated with inked scribbles and fading colors. But recently he’d grown to like them. Because it wasn’t how the hands looked that truly made them pretty, it was what they did. And Woohyun did some honestly beautiful things with his hands, from composing music to, surprisingly, arranging flowers.

Woohyun was a florist. He worked in a shop across from Sungyeol’s, actually, and he worked alongside his two closest friends: Dongwoo and Jangjun. Now Dongwoo looked like he’d be the type to be covered in ink, with his fierce and sharp features. But he was too indecisive to even like a henna tattoo for as short as it lasted. Jangjun had a rougher edge to him too, but he was more into piercings than tattoos because they didn’t last as long. Now Woohyun was the softest looking of the three, and yet was the one who had the addiction to ink. Perhaps it was for that reason, he rarely removed his gloves while in the shop and always wore long sleeves. He didn’t want to scare the ahjummahs that frequented their store. He wanted them to keep coming back for his pleasant smile and beautiful arrangements. And they did.

Their little flower shop was the most popular in Guri and beyond. People from the outer districts of Seoul would often order arrangements from them. Dongwoo and Jangjun had a unique flair when it came to arranging, and Woohyun always made sure to keep their wares stocked with all sorts of flowers, beyond the usual tulips, roses, lilies and gerberas. He often brought in plants not often found in other shops, that weren’t traditionally thought of as flowers. For example, this year, their hops and craspedia bouquets were a trend. Every fashionable Seoul bride wanted to walk down the aisle with one. But that trend had already passed, and Woohyun was now on the search for a new plant to kick off another trend. Luckily it was the winter season. Aside from selling poinsettias, holly, garlands, and mistletoe, there wasn’t much else for them to do. And so he searched.

The search continued into late winter, and into the dawning of the next spring. Still Woohyun hadn’t the faintest clue what new flower to bring into their shop.

Miss Gong had an idea though. Miss Gong was the owner of the shop, but as she was on the verge of retiring, she appeared in the shops less and less and gave the boys more and more responsibility. And yet the boys were really at a loss for who’d she name as the shop’s new owner. She seemed to favor none of them over the other, like the grandmotherly figure she was to them.

But then she told Woohyun to do an errand that she’d always done: go to a private garden on the outskirts of Guri and collect flowers from there. The garden was owned by a friend of hers, who the boys had never met or even heard the name of. Miss Gong would just announce that she was going to ‘the garden’ and would come back hours later with a truck full of fresh flowers of all varieties.

And now it was Woohyun’s task, which he was given minimal instructions for. Miss Gong didn’t even tell him what flowers he’d be gathering or if he needed to call in an order. All he was told was to show up one day in the early spring and “they’ll show you what to take.” It was cryptic, and it kept him up all night.

If he messed this up, they would be at a large deficit this quarter, and it would ruin his chances to prove his worth to Miss Gong. There was a lot riding on this visit.

And it already went off the rails from the very start when a man greeted him at the gate instead of the older woman that Woohyun was told would be there, especially since the man was acting like no one was on the other side of the gate and he was too busy observing the blossoms forming on the nearby kousa dogwood tree. Was Woohyun even allowed to be here? It didn’t seem like it. It seemed like that man was set on not acknowledging him.

And Woohyun couldn’t have that. “Hello?” he called out to the other.

The man finally turned towards him and casually replied, “Hey, what’s up?”

“Is this the Nymphaeum?” Woohyun asked as the man walked up to the gate. And that was when he’d gotten the feeling that they’d met before or at least crossed paths. The man felt as familiar as the mixed scents of flora and fauna in the air. Woohyun couldn’t put a name to the flowers or a name to this man or a place, but Woohyun was overtaken by the soft feeling of nostalgia.

Or maybe it was just because Woohyun found another tattooed flower specialist in Guri.

(Weeks later, Woohyun would remember the night when they first met and how music brought them together the first time, flowers the second, and for the third…)

“That’s what the sign says,” the man snapped Woohyun back into the present with that. He pointed at the sign through the slats of the gate, which he still refused to open. Seriously, was Woohyun not supposed to be here?

“I’m Sunggyu,” the man then introduced himself, quite suddenly.

“Sunggyu?” Woohyun repeated. “Just Sunggyu?” It was odd to be so casual so quickly, ignoring surnames from the start.

“Yup,” it was even odder when Sunggyu responded like that. “Are you from Miss Gong’s place?” he finally asked.

“Yes. I’m Woohyun. Nam Woohyun,” he introduced himself properly and bowed unlike the other. But then again, Woohyun was the one who needed a favor from him. The guy could act as odd as he wanted.

“I’ll open up the gate so that you can drive the truck in.” At last! Sunggyu was going to let him in, with a bit of a struggle, apparently. While Woohyun was striding back to the gate, he turned back and saw Sunggyu fighting against the gate’s lock, violently tugging on it. When he noticed that Woohyun’s eyes were on him, Sunggyu shot him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, this gate is old.”

“Do you need help?” Woohyun offered, smiling himself.

“No,” Sunggyu muttered, frustrated. His brow was furrowed as he tugged on the lock even more. “I just need a new fucking lock. Aish!” he swore. And perhaps that swear scared the gate into flying open, because it then did. “Aha! I got it! Come on in!” Sunggyu cheered and waved Woohyun inside, who had gotten back into the truck while the man was struggling. “Park it here.” And Woohyun did as he was told and parked the truck within meters of the gate, which Sunggyu quickly closed again and locked (which was a bit of a struggle once again). After Woohyun climbed out of the truck, he walked over towards Sunggyu who was still fighting with the lock. He’d meant to help but also to ask why. Why lock up the nursery? Were all specialized nurseries like this? However before he reached the other, Sunggyu conquered the lock and turned back around with a grin. “I got it.”

“Good job,” Woohyun remarked with a slight grin. “So where are the flowers that you're giving me?” As an answer, Sunggyu pointed off into the distance. Woohyun tried to follow the other’s finger the best that he could, but he had to step forward a few steps and squint in order to see the yellow field off in the distance. Woohyun’s grin slipped away. “Can’t I park any closer?” he asked with a whine.

“I can’t have you disturb…the plants. Rapeseed flowers are delicate,” Sunggyu halted in his reply, and he didn’t look at Woohyun as he did but past him. He then walked past him too. However, that was only because Sunggyu was making his way towards a set of bikes with carts attached to the back of them. “We’ll take these.”

“Okay,” Woohyun yielded. It wasn’t like he had a choice anyway. This guy Sunggyu called the shots around here.

This guy Sunggyu also peddled very slowly. Woohyun wagered that it would talk them twice as long to get to the field than if they had gone at a normal speed. But there was a positive side to it. It gave Woohyun enough time to enjoy the views that this garden had to offer. And maybe with a like coercion and a slick smile, Woohyun could get more than just rapeseed flowers from here.

“Hey!” Sunggyu called to the other when he noticed that Woohyun had come to a halt on the side of the path. “The rapeseed flowers are over there.” He pointed off towards the yellowed field.

“Can’t I take some of these too?” Woohyun asked as he dismounted from the bike and pointed at the spindly flowers a few feet away. Joe-pye-weeds, they almost taller than Woohyun was. Their purplely pink buds met Woohyun in the eye. They weren’t traditionally beautiful, not like roses or callilliles. They were…

“It’s a weed,” Sunggyu remarked, getting off of his own bike and walking up to Woohyun’s side. He looked the Joe-pyes up and down. “And it’s ugly,”

“It’s not ugly. It’s just a little rough,” Woohyun defended as he inched closer to the plant. Sunggyu hadn’t objected yet, and so it seemed to be okay. He turned away from the man and examined the buds more closely. They were colorful, uneven, and unique, just like the hands holding them. “I have a friend that turn it into something pretty,” Woohyun commented underneath his breath.

“Fine, I’ve been meaning to take it out anyway. It’s not good for the trees,” Sunggyu relented and handed the other some shears from his tool belt. Woohyun gladly accepted them and got to work, pruning the plant.

While he was doing so, Sunggyu tapped his shoulder and pointed to young dandelions, sprouting from the ground. “You wanna take some of these too?” he offered. Woohyun gave him a curious look. “I’d be curious to see what your friend would do with those,” his voice grew sweeter as he tried to tempt the other.

“Pass,” Woohyun replied with a snort. He took a large handful of joe-pye and walked back to the bikes. “Take me to the rapeseed flowers, please.”

“Fine,” the other man grumbled as he shuffled back to his bike. Woohyun grinned as he watched the other climb back onto his back. Sunggyu might be a bit awkward and very peculiar, but something about him was comfortable to be around.

* * *

And perhaps Woohyun felt too comfortable around the other because as they were harvesting the rapeseed, he declared loudly, “You must really like azaleas.” Sunggyu stood up straight and stared at the other curiously. “The tattoos,” Woohyun added, gesturing at his own arms where Sunggyu’s tattoos were on his (which was his entire visible arm. Woohyun wagered that the tattoos extended beyond that too). Woohyun began to doubt whether they had met before now. He’d surely remember those bright splotches of hot pink down the man’s long arms, but then again, the inked azalea blossoms were so bright, so fresh. Maybe they were new?

“I guess you could say that,” Sunggyu shrugged the remark off as he shrugged his own shoulders. He then looked up from his own tattoos to the other, with a amused grin. “I’m surprised that you knew what they were by sight. Most kids don’t know their flora.”

“Well, this kid is a florist,” Woohyun retorted and he cut another bunch of wildflowers. He then stood back up. “Hey. How old are you to be calling me a kid?”

“It’s a figure of speech,” Sunggyu shot back as walked towards the other after placing flowers into his cart. Apparently he was done helping Woohyun harvest the rapeseeds, and it had only been five minutes. He was now standing over Woohyun, watching him gather the flowers. “How old are you?”

“30,” Woohyun answered, glancing at the other out of the corner of his eye. Sunggyu, he didn’t seem to be much older than he was. Was he even older? It was very possible that Sunggyu was younger.

“32! I’m older.” Well, that was a surprise, as was the triumphant way Sunggyu said it.

“Is it a contest?” Woohyun asked with a snort.

Sunggyu crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back on his heels. “No, but I still like winning.”

“Isn’t being younger winning?” Woohyun argued back, jokingly.

But the other took it seriously. It must’ve struck a nerve. His smile fell and he sighed, deeply. “Sometimes.” He then lifted his hands towards Woohyun. “I’ll put those in the cart for you. You need to be careful with them.”

Woohyun rolled his eyes. He was a florist. He knew how to handle flowers (and he was just about to know how old Sunggyu really acted). But Woohyun still got up and handed the wildflowers over to the man. “Thanks,” he said with a smile. Yet Sunggyu didn’t even look at him as he took the flower. Woohyun watched the other intently as Sunggyu placed the flowers into the cart, and indeed, he was doing it with more care, with a more delicate hand, than the florist would. Sunggyu even gave the flowers a light pat once they were settled into the cart. Like tucking children into a bed, Woohyun thought.

Not only was this Sunggyu guy was a bit awkward, very peculiar, and comfortable to be around but he was also caring in spite of his aloof demeanor, in spite of the arms covered in tattoos.

This Sunggyu guy must really like flowers.

* * *

Flowers weren’t the only thing that Sunggyu liked. It didn’t take long for Woohyun to notice the man’s eyes lingering on his tattoos from time to time, whether they were the ones on his hands or the ones lining his collarbone. This man wasn’t shy about staring, not even when Woohyun caught him staring intensely at the one on his wrist, while they were loading the truck.

“You have interesting tattoos too,” Sunggyu remarked. He actually took the other’s hand so that he could have a better look. Woohyun, curious, let him and even positioned his hand so that the other could get a better look at it. “Is that a camphora tree?”

“Is it? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you,” Woohyun admitted with a chuckle. Sunggyu shot him an inquisitive look, like how dare a florist not know every plant by heart, especially one inked into his skin. It made Woohyun genuinely laugh and he explained, “It was the first tattoo that I got done, and I just picked a cool looking tree. Since my name is Nam Woohyun, I’ve been called ‘Namu’ my whole life. It seemed fitting.”

Sunggyu let go of his hand and looked up at him, blinking. “Namu? Are you…”

“Am I what?” Woohyun asked when the other wouldn’t finish his question.

“Ah, never mind,” Sunggyu replied with a shake of his head. He then turned around and walked away from the other, laughing. “Namu.”

“What’s so funny?” Woohyun said as he jumped out of the back of the truck and closed the door. The other didn’t answer, and Woohyun didn’t let it go. He walked up to the other and asked. “My name?”

“No, it’s…” Sunggyu began, still laughing, but he paused to calm down. He turned around and took in a deep breath. “It’s nothing,” he finally managed to speak without a chuckle. “So can I expect you later this week?”

“Yeah, I’ll be coming back. Wednesday probably,” Woohyun answered, at which the other only nodded and gave a thumbs up. “Okay, I’ll see you then,” he bid the other farewell, got into his truck, and left. Well, that is after Sunggyu won over his struggle with the gate again.

Woohyun chuckled as he waved goodbye to the other. This Sunggyu guy, he was looking forward to seeing him again.


	2. Green Barley

When Woohyun entered the shop after making a delivery, he knew something was, for lack of a better term, off. First, with the door opened, the wafting scent knocked him off balance. Woohyun actually tripped over a step because of it. The usual mix of floral and woody scents welcomed him, but it was quickly overtaken by a particularly strong odor that Woohyun couldn’t accurately describe. He wasn’t familiar with it. It seemed almost…fruity. What was it? Who was it? Second, when he came into the shop, Woohyun came to a complete stop and his head tilted off to the right, staring blankly at the man sitting down in the middle of the room. What a strange sight! Normally it wouldn’t be strange if it were Dongwoo or Jangjun. Woohyun had found the two of them doing stranger things. But Jangjun was organizing accounts at the counter, and Dongwoo was probably elsewhere arranging flowers. This man on the floor right now, Woohyun didn’t know who he was, or at least he never saw that back before in his life. And the strange man didn’t even turn around when the shop’s bell rang, heralding Woohyun’s arrival. He was too absorbed in whatever he was doing to care about the shop’s (possible) future owner. The man’s neck was bent over, revealing ink-stained skin peaking over the pristine color of his button down. The tattoo reached the bottom of his pink hair.

Was this man an idol? His style seemed too much of an odd mix between prep and punk for him to be anything else.

“What’s that kid doing?” Woohyun whispered to Jangjun after he reached the counter.

“Sketching flowers,” Jangjung responded under his breath along with a string of numbers, which he soon jotted down on a pad of paper. After resolving the accounts, he turned his attention towards the older. “I told him that he could! He looks harmless. He’s not touching anything,” Jangjun explained. The two of them then turned to the strange man, who had just gotten up and was now fondling roses. Jangjun laughed out of nerves. “Well, he wasn’t touching anything earlier.”

Woohyun shot a thorny look at Jangjun, and then melted into a slight warm smile, before shaking his head and approaching the man on the floor. “Hey,” he called out to him.

The man quickly turned around and greeted Woohyun with a great grin. “Hello! Thank you for letting me practice here. Sungyeol-hyung was right. You guys _are_ nice!”

Woohyun stopped in his tracks. “Sungyeol sent you?” he asked. The chilly tattoo artist was the last person Woohyun expected this idol-looking man to know.

“Yes!” the young man chirped and then straightened himself up proudly. He introduced himself, “I’m his new apprentice, Joochan. Nice to meet you!”

“You’re his new apprentice?!” every word that came out of this man’s mouth was more surprising than the next. And the more Woohyun stared at him, the younger Joochan looked. The kid didn’t even look old enough to legally hold a cigarette but Sungyeol was training him to hold a needle? This kid who, in spite of his pink hair, looked more preppy than punk? Woohyun’s gaze dropped down to the sketchbook in the kid’s hands, and it was filled with thinly drawn flowers, from multiple angles. But when Woohyun’s eyes traveled a bit higher, to the hands clutching at the book, he saw thin lines of dark ink traveling along the bones of Joochan’s hands.

And Woohyun was reminded that he shouldn’t be one to judge whether or not a person should look like he/she had an interest in tattoos or not.

“Yes!” Joochan exclaimed with a sharp nod.

“Okay,” Woohyun replied and stepped back towards the counter. But he didn’t leave Joochan alone. He left a warning to keep him company. “Just don’t touch anything. Flowers are more fragile than you think. If you look at them the wrong way, they’ll wilt.”

“Got it! I will keep my hands to myself!” Joochan chirped back and sat back down on the ground. His hands soon swooped across the paper again in broad strokes, and the young apprentice was immersed back in his work.

And Woohyun was just as immersed, watching him from the counter. It was something about the apprentice, about his tattoos. He squinted his eyes in order to make the outline of the inked drawing. Was it…were they…petals? Just like…Woohyun’s eyes widened when he realized it. He sniffed again just to make sure. The odd scent had been coming from Joochan.

“What is it, hyung?” Jangjun’s voice broke into his mind.

“He’s a strange kid,” Woohyun remarked nodding over to the apprentice, who was now humming a happy tune as he sketched. “He seems too straight-laced to be a tattoo artist.”

“And you’re the perfect image of a florist, hyung,” Jangjun came back, without even looking up from the accounts. Half a second later, Jangjun realized the words that had come from his mouth (and heard the soft whimper coming from his hyung). “The perfect image of a sexy florist. I love you,” he tried to amend.

“Forget it,” Woohyun responded with a chuckle. “I have to get the next delivery ready,” he announced before heading over the to refrigerated room. Also before he did, Woohyun shot one last look at the curious apprentice.

Joochan, something about that kid reminded him of Sunggyu. Why? If Woohyun knew that, he wouldn’t have spent the rest of his day trying to find a connection between the two. In the end, Woohyun couldn’t think of anything more than those delicate petals staining their necks and hands.

But then again, it was the start spring, and flowers were blooming at all corners of the country after the long winter chill. This time of year, why couldn’t flowers sprout on skin too?

* * *

More than just flowers grew in the spring. Weeds did, which Sunggyu always tried to tempt Woohyun with ever since the Joe-pye incident. Green barley also coated a corner of the garden, growing up to Woohyun’s hip before he cut them down. (The barley always made for good frames in arrangements. Not every flower could be the focal point or even the foundation of the arrangement. Some plants in floristry just exist to enhance the beauty of others. Woohyun could relate to that sometimes, often thinking of himself as the frame of the trio at the shop since he didn’t have much of a gift for arranging, just a passion for the art).

But something else was also known for blossoming in the spring, and Woohyun could already feel a seed of it being planted in his heart. Would it sprout? If it did, how great would it grow before it’d wither away? Or maybe, just maybe, would this seed actually bear fruit?

It was all scary and exciting at the same time. But Woohyun didn’t try to let it show, very much.

“Do you want some water?” Sunggyu called out to the other after placing an armful of barely into the cart. They’d been at this for hours. Not only did they harvest the green barley, but earlier they’d pluck rapeseed flowers, crocus, and…well, Woohyun couldn’t remember what flower was before that. The warm spring sun was affecting his head.

They needed a break.

“Yes, please!” Woohyun hoped he sounded as exasperated as he felt.

“Follow me!” Sunggyu exclaimed, pleased that Woohyun was just as ‘done’ with harvesting as he was. Surprisingly, Sunggyu didn’t hop onto his bike immediately and pedal on ahead as he usually did, expecting the other to catch up with him. He waited for Woohyun to get onto his bike first.

Perhaps there was a seed in his heart too.

* * *

Before they rested, the piled the green barley into the truck along with the rapeseed flowers, forsythia, crocus, and other plants that they’d been gathering since the morning. But they finished with that task quickly and Sunggyu then led him deep within the garden, towards the outer edge that Woohyun hadn’t seen before. While they were pedaling, they passed several trees and bushes which were either budding or in full bloom, each one as pretty as the next. Each one a potential focal point for a bouquet. Perhaps, Woohyun thought, the prettiest flowers in the world were the ones on trees or bushes.

And that thought took deeper root when they reached a small white cottage, tucked in the back of the garden and hidden behind a great wall of azaleas. Woohyun couldn’t help but to mutter out a ‘wow’ when he saw it. It looked like a place that he’d only seen in animated fairy tales.

His wonderment didn’t escape Sunggyu, who shot the other a curious glance. “Do you live here?” Woohyun asked as he got off from the bike, following the older.

“Yes, it’s small, but it’s home,” Sunggyu answered and parked his bike. “Come inside,” he said as he ushered into the cottage. “I’ll get us some water.” The man then went into the kitchen area, only a few steps away from the door.

Woohyun stood by the door and scanned the cottage. It was mainly one open room, with a kitchen to one side, a dining area at the other, and near the front was a living area. He assumed that somewhere there were stairs that led up to the bedroom. He couldn’t see them though, or any sign of another person living at the home besides Sunggyu. “So it’s just you?” Woohyun pried.

“Not really,” Sunggyu answered with a shake of his head and a coy grin. “I have a lot of visitors. So I can’t really say it’s just me.”

“Oh,” Woohyun muttered and dropped his eyes to the floor, mulling over what he met by that. Seconds later, a glass appeared into his sight. “Ah, thank you.” He lifted his head and took the glass with both hands.

“Let’s go sit outside,” Sunggyu suggested. “I have a porch!” Indeed having a detached house was rare and owning a porch was even more rare, Sunggyu bragged about it with an iota too much of excitement which made Woohyun chuckle.

“Yeah, let’s sit outside,” he agreed and followed the gardener.

And perhaps his porch was worth bragging about. It was really pleasant sitting out there, but Woohyun didn’t know how much he could attribute the pleasantness to the porch, or to the company, or to the nice cold glass of water after a long day in the sun.

There was something else puzzling Woohyun too. Sunggyu’s arms really looked like they were sprouting flowers now. More magenta blossoms were covering the bright green leaves. Did his tattoo really change? Did he get new ones? Was it even possible to layer tattoos like that? Woohyun would have to ask Sungyeol about it next time.

“What do you think?” Sunggyu suddenly asked. Woohyun was taken about. What was he referring to? The gardener answered the unspoken question. “Of the azalea?” he posed and quickly took a sip of his own glass (nervously?).

“I’ve never seen one this big,” Woohyun replied, directing his gaze back towards the bush in front of him. He felt like he was in the middle of a sea of flowers, on that porch. “I like it. Did you grow this?”

“Yep, all by myself,” Sunggyu appeared to be very pleased with Woohyun’s answer. It must’ve been his pride and joy of this entire garden. Certainly his favorite flower, Woohyun concluded. Sunggyu literally covered his entire self with it. What was the reason for that? Woohyun wanted to know.

Maybe he would if he explored its beauty more.

Woohyun got up from his seat and walked closer to the edge of the porch, closer to the bush. “Can I take a few…”

A hand grabbed at Woohyun’s wrist as it reached towards a nearby bud. The florist glanced over. When did Sunggyu get up? “NO! Don’t touch it! Don’t!” the gardener threatened.

Woohyun pulled his hand away and put them both up into the air, giving in. “Okay, I won’t,” he promised.

Sunggyu himself stepped back from the bush too and shook his head at himself and his own behavior. “Sorry, it’s just…some plants here are off limits. This one especially. Don’t even look at it anymore,” he tried to veil a warning with a joke. But Woohyun could still see it clearly: don’t touch any plant without Sunggyu’s permission, especially his favorite.

And Woohyun went along with both the warning and the joke. He closed his eyes immediately. “Okay, okay, I won’t look!” With his hands, he blindly searched for his chair and sat back down. He could hear the other chuckling at his antics, and that pushed Woohyun further. The florist tried to act as usual but with his eyes closed, chatting with the other and rocking in his chair. But there was one thing that he couldn’t do so well blind: drink. “Aish!” Woohyun swore after spilling the rest of his drink down his shirt.

But even at that moment, his eyes were still closed.

Sunggyu was trying to stifle his laughter, but it still escaped in squeaks and snickers. “Hold on,” he muttered under his breath, and then Woohyun heard steps approaching him. A few seconds later, a cloth was dabbing his skin, soaking up the mess and smelling like dirt and Sunggyu’s sweat (somehow still sweet smelling underneath the layers of musk). Woohyun still didn’t open his eyes. He just winced and moved his head away. “You’re ridiculous,” Sunggyu grumbled and tossed the cloth at the other’s lap. “You can open your eyes now. And clean yourself up.”

Woohyun did finally open his eyes, but not to grab at the rag he was given. Instead he stared at the other. The tattoos weren’t the only thing that had changed. “Did you dye your hair?” Woohyun asked as his eyes narrowed. Sunggyu’s hair, it was more on the purple end of the spectrum than before, lighter and brighter. Normally dyed hair didn’t ‘fade’ into a more vibrant color.

“No, it’s just the sunlight,” Sunggyu remarked as he backed away into the shadows. His hair, however, scarcely looked any darker. He gave Woohyun no room to argue with him because he was already heading towards the edge of the porch. “When you’re done with your water, I’ll help you organize the stuff in the truck.”

He wasn’t so subtly telling Woohyun to finish up and go. In fact, Sunggyu was gesturing at the florist with his hands, telling him to hurry up. Woohyun, however, was in no rush. He stared the gardener down, raised the glass slowly to his lips, and took the tiniest sip from it before setting it back down and flashing the other a proud smile.

Sunggyu scoffed. “If you go any slower, the flowers will wilt by the time you go back to the shop.”

He had a point. So Woohyun chugged the rest of his water and then joined the other. “Let’s go.”

* * *

“Hey, I was wondering,” Woohyun started as he was locking the truck’s back door. They didn’t do much organizing, but they’d secured the cargo and called it good enough. Well, Sunggyu called it good enough. Woohyun knew he was being rushed out of the property, yet he didn’t mind it because he had a feeling that it wasn’t because Sunggyu didn’t like him. And playing on that feeling, he asked: “Can come back here after work or on the weekend? I feel like I can learn a lot here and from you.”

“Sure,” Woohyun’s feeling was correct. Sunggyu gave his answer quickly and happily. And on top of that, he pulled out his phone. “Just call me first. Let me give you my number, and you can give me yours.”

It was an open invitation to the garden, and perhaps Woohyun thought that the garden was a little too open to him. Woohyun came to visit again and again and again, whenever he had days off or whenever he got off from work. Some visits were longer than others. Sunggyu tolerated him some times better than others, but he never turned Woohyun away or told him not to come. It probably was because Woohyun would help him out whenever he came over, and he even fixed the gate. And it was definitely because they were both interested in each other.

But interest comes in many, many forms. For Woohyun, at least, he was mainly interested in becoming closer to Sunggyu. That was it. Just closer. Close enough to nurture the seed in his heart. And as for Sunggyu...

“You know, it might be your day off today, but I’m working,” Sunggyu remarked. They were delicately pruning a sprawling yet bare crape myrtle tree. Well, Sunggyu was. He took a small snip here and there with his shears and analyzed the tree’s mottling bark. Woohyun, on the other hand, was relegated to weed duty. Always weeds. Other than the flowers and the barley, Woohyun was pretty sure that weeds were the only other thing that he could touch freely here. He once leaned against a pine tree for a moment’s rest, and Sunggyu nearly had a conniption. But that reaction was nowhere as severe as the one Sunggyu had when Woohyun bent down to drink from the garden’s fresh-water spring. Every time Sunggyu flipped out like that, it would be followed by a stream of words about ‘respect for nature’ and ‘you just can’t do that!’. Yet it was okay for Woohyun to pluck petals off of wild flowers and kill weeds. He didn’t get it. But he wanted to. He wanted to understand _all_ of this.

“So am I. This is professional development. I’m learning a lot from you,” Woohyun replied as he pulled out another weed and tossed it into a growing pile of them.

“You’re slowing me down,” Sunggyu snapped back, his hand patting the tree softly after trimming off a dead twig.

“Slowing you down?” Woohyun picked out as he stood up with a soft groan. “I wasn’t slowing you down when I was lifting bags of fertilizer earlier.”

Sunggyu paused and looked over at the other with a grin. “Thank you!” he chirped but then he turned back around and continued in a distracted voice, “I guess, what I am trying to say is…” he paused to examine a leaf but then spoke again, “If you want to hang out with me, then let’s go somewhere where I can have fun too.”

Woohyun studied the gardener. Sunggyu said that so casually but how casual was this proposal exactly. What sort of interest in Woohyun did he have? There was only one way to find out.

“Sure,” the florist answered. “What do you have in mind?”

“I don’t know. Dinner?” Sunggyu suggested (and his shy glance towards Woohyun suggested something else).

Woohyun grinned. “Dinner would be great.”

* * *

Their relationship outside of the ivy-covered walls of the garden wasn’t much different from their relationship inside of them. Sunggyu snapped at Woohyun less for ‘inappropriately’ touching plants, but they talked just as much about all sorts of things, especially about music. Woohyun mentioned about he occasionally busked on the streets of Guri, and Sunggyu mentioned that he _might’ve_ watched Woohyun’s performance once or twice before. The gardener frequented those streets often, drawn by the siren call of music, Woohyun’s call sometimes. And Woohyun remembered him, from the shadows of his memory, he remembered Sunggyu standing in the crowd listening to his music and nodding along.

Woohyun also remembered that Sunggyu didn’t use to have an azalea flower on the back of his hand or a cluster of buds tracing his collar bone.

When was he getting these done? Where was he getting these done? These didn’t seem like normal tattoos.

To find an answer, Woohyun went to go see the most abnormal tattoo artist he knew: Sungyeol. Luckily, he was already scheduled to have lunch with the man. So that afternoon, Woohyun came into the shop and was still surprised to see Joochan sitting behind the reception desk, no matter how many times he’d seen the apprentice there. The apprentice still looked out of place.

“Hey, Joochan,” Woohyun greeted.

“Oh! Woohyun-hyung, hello!” That was it. That was why Joochan didn’t seem to fit this place. He was entirely too cheerful, especially when compared to Sungyeol’s cool aura. But Joochan appeared to be a welcomed change to this shop and much loved by his coworkers and their clients alike, Woohyun included. He walked up to the desk and leaned up against it to talk to the boy. “Do you want to make another appointment already?” Joochan asked.

“No, I’m here to see Sungyeol. We made plans for lunch, but I wanted to ask you something,” Woohyun said, creeping further up the desk and closer to Joochan as he lowered his voice at the end.

“What is it?” Joochan followed and whispered to the other.

“Have you guys done work on a man named Sunggyu recently? I don’t know his surname, but he has tons of azalea blossoms all over,” Woohyun asked. A flash of recognition darted across the other’s eyes. So Woohyun pushed it. “Does that ring a bell?”

“No!” Joochan yelped and jumped back a bit from the other. He quickly realized how extreme his reaction was, so he cleared his throat and repeated more calmly, “No.” His eyes flew over to the right, and Woohyun followed. He then saw Sungyeol standing at the other end of the desk, shaking his head at his apprentice. “We don’t know this Sunggyu-hyung,” Joochan said with his eyes fixed on his master and flashed him a thumbs up. At that, Sungyeol slapped his forehead.

“Sunggyu- _hyung_?” That didn’t escape Woohyun’s notice. You don’t call a complete stranger ‘hyung.’

“Well, he’s hyung’s friend so…” Joochan reasoned, dropping his voice and gaze lower and lower. His guilt shining through his reddening face.

“Sunggyu doesn’t get his done here,” Sungyeol spoke up and slipped between Woohyun and Joochan, as fluid as water. “How do _you_ know him?” he turned the question around.

But Woohyun wasn’t going to be distracted. Something was up. These two were acting weird. “How do _you_ know him?”

“I asked first,” Sungyeol was firm and rigid.

“I get wildflowers from his garden,” Woohyun decided to give in and answered. Maybe if he a little more lenient, Sungyeol would be too.

But Joochan was the one to speak up. “From _our_ …since when?!” the boy exclaimed, eyes darting between the two others. Sungyeol shook his head again at the apprentice and put a finger to his lips, shushing him.

“I don’t know. Miss Gong always had. She’s friends with the woman who started it, from what I know,” Woohyun addressed the both of them. ‘Our,’ did Joochan mean that they had associations with the garden too? Maybe, but in any case, without a single doubt in his mind, Woohyun knew that these two knew Sunggyu. But he didn’t know why they were acting like they didn’t? What kind of person was Sunggyu? What kind of people were they?

“How do you know him?” Woohyun pressed.

“We all grew up on the same block,” Sungyeol explained, and Joochan nodded emphatically at that.

But Woohyun didn’t find that answer as satisfying. He crossed his arms over his chest and challenged them: “Then why did you say that you didn’t know him?” No, he challenged Joochan alone, the weak one with loose lips. And the apprentice was already breaking down.

“Ah, well, about that…” Joochan began stuttering and nervously wrung his hands.

“Sunggyu doesn’t want a lot of people knowing about him,” Sungyeol jumped in. He put a hand on Woohyun’s shoulder and turned his friend towards him. Sungyeol’s dark eyes washed over him. “We’re used to protecting him.”

“Why is that?” Every time he got an answer, Woohyun was only left with more questions.

Especially when Joochan replied, “Because he protects us.”

“What? Is he some sort of spy?” Woohyun shot back with a scoff. Protect? He could see how someone like Joochan needed protection (especially from himself), but Sungyeol certainly didn’t need it. And Sungyeol certainly didn’t need to be protected by a gardener who spent most of his days slowly riding a bike and pruning trees leaf by leaf.

Sunggyu, however, wasn’t who Woohyun thought he was. Sungyeol made that clear.

The tattoo artist stepped in closer and hissed into Woohyun’s ear, “If you know, then you’re a dead man.” He then turned around and began heading towards the door. “Let’s get lunch.”

Woohyun dropped it right then and there because he didn’t want to drop dead.

* * *

But Woohyun didn’t stop seeing Sunggyu (both inside and outside of the garden), and he wasn’t afraid of seeing him, in spite of Sungyeol’s warning, in spite of gardener’s veiled identity. Woohyun still felt comfortable around him. And even though parts of the gardener were intentionally hidden away, Woohyun felt like he knew him well enough. The parts that Woohyun knew, he liked. And that was all that mattered for now.

And the parts that Woohyun knew seemed oddly intimate. At times, he wondered if Sungyeol or Joochan knew about this side of the gardener. Like Sunggyu’s regrets. Sunggyu often mentioned about how he would’ve gone into music if it weren’t for his job and expressed envy at Woohyun’s freedom to busk, at Woohyun’s freedom to leave his profession and potential to go into music. But Woohyun was happy just busking and he wanted to continue to be a florist, disregarding Sunggyu’s very strong encouragement to pursue a music career. Both music and flowers brought him satisfaction and joy that one alone could not bring. He thought Sunggyu would understand. But instead Sunggyu would get this lost look in his eyes whenever Woohyun suggested that he should quit or that they should busk together. “I can’t,” was Sunggyu would say. “There are things in this world that you cannot understand.”

Oh, but Woohyun did understand, or at least he understood more than Sunggyu thought he did. Woohyun was attentive. He noticed the edges of azaleas’ petals not fading but browning, all over Sunggyu’s body. The gardener’s hair color was darkening, and the man himself was eating less and less every time they met.

Woohyun had asked if Sunggyu was going on a diet or if he was sick. And the older would just answer ‘no’ and then turn the conversation back around, commenting on how much Woohyun ate and the plump, mandu-like cheeks he had. But the florist wasn’t distracted. Sunggyu was losing weight.

It was worrisome.

* * *

It wasn’t as worrisome as when Woohyun watched the tattooed blossom on Sunggyu’s hand whither and fall off right in front of his eyes. Was he seeing things? Was he sleeping and this was a dream? Ah, no, it wasn’t a dream. While he’d been staring at Sunggyu’s hands, Woohyun pricked his own on a thorn of floribunda rose that he’d been harvesting, and his finger was bleeding now. He put the injured finger in his mouth as his gaze returned to Sunggyu, to his hand, where the azalea was still gone.

Sunggyu caught his gaze, quickly took the gloves from his pocket, and shoved his hands into them. “Why are you looking at me strangely?” he asked and continued to select roses for the other. “This one will do.”

“Thanks,” Woohyun muttered as he walked while crouching over to Sunggyu’s side. He cut the rose from the bush, carefully because the gardener was watching him very closely. But Woohyun was watching the other closely too. He nodded down to Sunggyu’s hand. “You lost a tattoo.”

Sunggyu covered his hand with the other, even though his skin was already hidden underneath his gloves. “No, I didn’t,” he argued and got up.

Snip! Woohyun had it, with everything, with all of these secret, with the tiptoeing around. He got up too and pointed at the other with the freshly cut rose.

“You did!” Woohyun exclaimed. “There used to be a blossom right there!” He pointed right at the hand.

“Where? Where was it?” Sunggyu was in a panic. He tore off the glove and inspected his hand. He winced, as if in pain, but then hid the hand behind his back while insisting, “I never had one there.”

“Sunggyu,” Woohyun spoke sternly. He lowered the rose and stepped closer to the other. “Tell me the truth.”

“There’s no truth! There never was a tattoo there,” Sunggyu was rooted in his stance. “You should be more respectful and not wave that thing around,” he lectured the other and gestured towards the rose. “She worked really hard to grow it, and I had to ask for special permission for you to…”

Sunggyu’s rant fell on deaf ears. Woohyun wasn’t listening to him. His eyes fell from Sunggyu’s face to his neck, where one flower had curled at the edges. And it…it really was teetering, moving so subtlety over the edge of Sunggyu’s collar as if it were waving to Woohyun. Back and forth, back and forth the flower went until it tipped and fell entirely below Sunggyu’s collar and never came back up again. It had disappeared too.

“Ah! It happened again!” Woohyun exclaimed. “On your neck! The one on your neck went away too!” His finger was nearly pressing into the other’s skin, where the flower had been.

Sunggyu fell back several steps and pulled away at the collar of his shirt so that he could look at it himself. When he’d seen it, or hadn’t seen it in this case, curses spilled from his lips. The gardener turned on his feet and ran over towards his bike. “It’s too fast this year.” Woohyun caught him saying amidst the curses.

“What’s going on?” Woohyun shouted at the other who was already pedaling away.

“I don’t know!” Sunggyu yelled back and kept on going.

And Woohyun didn’t know if he should follow the other, but he did. He followed Sunggyu to his cottage, where Sunggyu had tossed his bike onto the ground and was frantically walking around the azalea bush, shears in his hand. Woohyun dropped his bike next to the other.

“Sunggyu, what’s going on?” Woohyun asked again. He came up to the other and followed in his hurried step. “Tell me. Tell me so that I can help you.”

Woohyun could practically see the other’s ears twitch at the word ‘help.’ Sunggyu spun around. For a moment, his face was blanketed in shock and terror, but it then melted when Sunggyu sighed. “Fuck it. Sungyeol says that you’re catching on anyway. There’s really no point in hiding it from you,” he muttered and turned back towards the cottage. He gestured at the sprawling plant in front of them. “I’m the god of this azalea bush.”

“There’s a god of azaleas?” Woohyun was skeptical, not only in spoken words but unspoken as well. His arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrows even questioned the gardener. Woohyun just wanted the truth after being skirted around all of this time, not more distractions.  
“Well, I’m not sure of that. But I’m the god of this one,” oh, wait, Sunggyu sounded earnest and very very concerned.

“You’re the god of a single plant?” Woohyun asked and crouched down next to Sunggyu, who was now kneeling besides the azalea bush as he examined its branches.

“I’m a nymph,” Sunggyu replied in a distracted voice. He was juggling the shears in his hands, eyes darting everywhere. “What’s wrong?”

“A nymph?!” Woohyun exclaimed. He couldn’t take his eyes away from the other, until Sunggyu nodded. Then Woohyun’s gaze dropped to his feet as he struggled to register everything. A nymph? Woohyun had only seen nymphs in paintings before, and to him, it always seemed like an excuse to draw naked girls. So how could Sunggyu be…a god of a bush, a god of an azalea bush, this azalea bush in front of him. Woohyun lifted his eyes from the ground to the bush, watching Sunggyu hurriedly prune it. Leaves shook and fell, both from the bush and from Sunggyu’s tattoo.

Well, that explained that. But what about…Woohyun immediately got up and spun around, scanning the rest of the garden with a fresh perspective. The trees that he couldn’t touch, could they be…

“Are there more of you?” Woohyun asked with his back still to the other. He was looking for traces of the trees coming to ‘life’ too.

“Nymphs? Of course,” Sunggyu answered as if it were ordinary. And for him it was. “For trees and water sources.” He then knocked into the other. “Can you move? I have to get to the other side.” Woohyun, still stunned, didn’t so much step of of Sunggyu’s way but ignore the gardener bumping into him. But Sunggyu could’ve pushed him over and he wouldn’t have noticed. Woohyun was too distracted by his mind falling to pieces and putting it back together with this new reality he just entered into. A reality where gods and nymphs were real. Where trees and bushes had spirits. Where water…

“Water,” Woohyun repeated, suddenly recalling the tattooed waves on his friend’s skin and his cooling touch. Finally he turned towards Sunggyu and asked, “Wait. Is Sungyeol one of you too?”

“Eung,” Sunggyu grunted. He was cutting away at the bush quicker than Woohyun had ever seen him cut anything. He also tossed the branches carelessly to the ground. “His spring is near the entrance, next to Joochan’s tree, the kousa dogwood.”

At that, Woohyun closed his eyes and side. Joochan, of course, he was a nymph too. It made sense. As crazy as everything sounded, it all made sense. But it was still difficult to come to terms with. Woohyun opened his eyes again and caught sight of the joe-pye weeds that he’d mercilessly cut down the first time he’d come here. “Does this have a nymph?” he asked, panicked and pointed at the weeds.

“No, Woohyun, that’s a weed. Stop being stupid and help me out!” Sunggyu snapped at him. “You said that you’d help me, but you’re just standing there! Ugh, I can’t believe I forgot to prune.” He switched from chiding to Woohyun to chiding himself. More and more branches fell to the ground. Sunggyu’s tattoo grew smaller and smaller. Woohyun’s eyes stayed fixed on the growing pile of branches on the ground. The leaves, Woohyun didn’t notice it at first or he didn’t care to notice, but several of them were spotted with yellow. This azalea…Sunggyu…

Woohyun didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how to help. This plant was Sunggyu, Sunggyu was this plant. Didn’t…didn’t this hurt him? Was he sick?

“Stop looking,” Sunggyu growled at him.

“Sorry,” Woohyun apologized quickly and closed his eyes.

But his ears were still open and he heard Sunggyu sigh heavily. “It’s okay. Just gather up the branches.”

And Woohyun did, silently. He followed Sunggyu’s every request then until the gardener calmed down and deemed his bush well pruned.

* * *

Right after azaleas are finished blooming, they need to be pruned. Sunggyu didn’t do that. He’d forgotten, spending his time and energy tending to the other plants, spending his time with Woohyun. It’s the typical story, isn’t it? Having no time to take care of yourself? Woohyun could relate to that. That was his story too.

Nymph or human, some things were universal.

“So do I need to sign like an NDA now or something? So I won’t tell anyone that you’re nymphs?” Woohyun finally broke his silence. The both of them were sitting on the porch now, drinking, washing away the stress from the day. Sunggyu couldn’t look away from his bush. He didn’t want to part from it either. And Woohyun didn’t want to part from him, not when he was like this.

“No,” Sunggyu replied with a slight laugh. Gradually his anxiety was falling away (just like the leaves from his…). “It’s not really that big of a deal.”  
“Sungyeol said that you don’t like a lot of people knowing about you,” Woohyun responded. “He said I would _die_ if I knew.”

Now Sunggyu let out a hearty laugh. “That sounds like Sungyeol,” he revealed. “But some people can know. It’s just…” he paused to sigh again and to rub his face. “It’s just…this is my job. I look after this place. It’s this place that I don’t want people to know about. And you already knew about it so…”

“Oh,” Woohyun mumbled as he took in the sights that laid beyond the bright pink azalea bush. There was so much life within these walls, actual living spirits tied to every single tree, bush, shrub, maybe even every puddle of water. And Sunggyu was the protector of them all, nothing close to the gardener Woohyun always thought he was. Sunggyu was a god. They all were.

And Woohyun wasn’t.

All of this was somewhat terrifying. Woohyun’s hands clutched onto his beer. “I won’t tell anybody about this place. I swear,” he made a solemn vow.

Sunggyu noticed a shift in Woohyun’s tone, and his entire demeanor. He reached over to place his hand on the younger’s arm, but Woohyun flinched before he did so. It didn’t stop Sunggyu though. No, instead he touched Woohyun with as gentle of a hand as he usually treated the other trees, soothing. “I know you won’t. That’s why Miss Gong chose you,” after he said that, Sunggyu removed his hand from the younger and placed it on his armrest. Woohyun’s eyes followed the hand as it left him, and then raised up to Sunggyu’s smiling face. Even though he knew the older was a god now, Sunggyu still wasn’t intimidating. But would it hubris to think that they still had a connection?

“You know, this isn’t my first time telling a human about us. We kinda do it all of the time,” Sunggyu continued. He then broke into a small chuckle before revealing, “I think Joochan told his whole class when he was in middle school.”

“Really?” Woohyun chuckled himself. Sunggyu nodded. “I’m not surprised.” Really, the image of a young Joochan announcing that he was a nymph to all of his little friend came all too easily.

“Right?” Sunggyu laughed more and turned towards the other. “But I can’t blame him. Doesn’t everyone want to talk about where they come from to friends?”

“I guess,” Woohyun replied. “But I’ve been friends with Sungyeol for years, and he hadn’t told me.”

“Sungyeol’s from the time when they were more secretive about it. He’s older than all of us, you know? _Much_ , much older,” Sunggyu clarified, and something about the tone of his voice made it seem like this was something he’d gone over time and time again with the water nymph. It was tired. “But today, everyone overshares personal information. And it’s fine. You can trust humans.”

“True,” Woohyun agreed, not just because he wanted Sunggyu to trust him but because he genuinely trusted other people, so many other people. Sometimes he didn’t even realize that he was trusting other people, like when he tagged his Instagram posts with his location. And other times he was well aware. He’d come out to several people, including his own family, when it was verboten not that long ago. “Things really are different now,” Woohyun concluded.

“Right? That’s what I keep telling Sungyeol,” Sunggyu was still on what they had just been talking about, whereas Woohyun was miles away in thought.

“So,” Woohyun started and finally turned towards the other too. “So just how many people have you told about this?”

“Not many,” Sunggyu answered. “Only my friends.”

“Hm? We’re friends?” Woohyun asked.

Sunggyu cocked his head. “Are we not?”

Woohyun grinned, as bright as the setting sun. “I’m just making sure,” he responded. “I want to be friends with you.”

Sunggyu nodded, biting back his own smile, trying to act cool. “Good. Then I’m glad I told you.”

* * *

The seed in his heart had sprouted, awhile ago, and now it had grown into a sapling. It would bear fruit for certain. But what would come of this relationship? Only time would tell.

But what Woohyun didn’t know was that their time was limited. He knew what happened to trees during the winter. But what happens to the nymphs?


End file.
